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Sumac Sour

Presenting, the Sumac Sour — an exotic and floral Pisco Sour variation with Japanese sake and a French aperitif wine made to honor the Peruvian opera singer and Inca Princess, Yma Sumac.

How do you make a cocktail to honor an Inca princess who travelled all over the world and was known as the “Peruvian Songbird?” You start in her birthplace, with the heart of the cocktail, with Pisco, and you make sure to select a floral Italia grape varietal. Then you add a little bit of umami in the form of a dry sake as a reminder of her 2 month visit to Tokyo, where she performed at the Mikado Theatre in 1963. And you contrast the sake with a French aperitif wine with a Peruvian connection as homage to her many concerts in Paris. Lime juice, simple syrup, egg whites, and passion fruit bitters complete the sour, and you garnish it with an edible flower. All of which make it exotic, floral, and the perfect cocktail to honor an Inca Princess.

INGREDIENTS

1 oz. Barsol Pisco Italia

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

1/2 oz. simple syrup

1 egg white

1/4 oz. Kina L’avion D’or

1/4 oz. Midorikawa Sake

3 drops passion fruit bitters

an edible flower for garnish

PREPARATION

Combine the Pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, egg whites, sake, and aperitif wine in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously to create a foam and strain into a chilled coup. Add 3 drops of passion fruit bitters on top of the foam, and garnish with an edible flower.

SERVINGS

1 serving

NOTES

In Quechua, the language of the Inca, sumac also means beautiful and Sumac Ñusta is the title of a poem in Inca lore about a beautiful princess in the sky that provides the earth with rain. Kina refers to family of French aperitif wines that contain quinine, which is made from the Peruvian cinchona bark, and has been used all over the world for its anti-malaria properties. Pisco is also a Quechua word, which means little bird, which makes it the perfect spirit to make a cocktail to honor the “Peruvian Songbird” and Inca Princes, Yma Sumac.